


Supernatural Pilot: Recap

by shirtlesssammy



Series: Supernatural Season One [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Animated GIFs, Episode Review, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Gen, Humor, spn 01x01, spn recap, spn rewatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26188651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirtlesssammy/pseuds/shirtlesssammy
Summary: A recap of Supernatural season 1 episode 1: The Pilot! Where it all began, baby.
Relationships: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Series: Supernatural Season One [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901776
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Supernatural Pilot: Recap

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](https://shirtlesssammy.tumblr.com/post/154589882081/supernatural-pilot-recap) on December 17, 2016.

_Natasha_ : Oh, Supernatural. You had me at hello.

**Lawrence, Kansas: 22 years ago**

John and Mary, husband and wife….

I can’t decide if this will be the easiest recap to write or the hardest. I’m 2 minutes into watching and there’s so much to absorb. Sam’s baseball mobile and John and Dean’s banter about tossing the ball around probably hits me in the feels the hardest. And we all know this story so well. Mary burns, John becomes obsessed with vengeance, and little Dean takes on the task of watching out for his little brother. (Also, the show has really upped their Title Card game!)

**Stanford University: Present Day**

Baby Sam is all grown up, dislikes Halloween, and has a really cool girlfriend, Jessica, who insists on dragging him to a party anyway. Once at said party, they discuss cool things like LSAT scores and law school interviews. Sam’s nerd status has stayed consistent all these years. Despite Sam’s lack of family involvement, Jess makes it clear that she’s very proud of him, and he’s going to do great things. “ _What would I do without you?_ ” Sam marvels. Oh, Sam.

Later that night, Sam hears a suspicious noise in their apartment and heads to investigate. Fisticuffs ensue, and we’re introduced to big brother Dean. He’s got some private family business to discuss with Sam. See, their dad “ _is on a hunting trip and hasn’t been home in a few days.”_ Sam wants nothing to do with it–and doesn’t see why Dean is making such a big deal of their missing dad. He did it all the time when they were growing up. (More feels.) (Also insert classic bro fight and info dump on their lives as hunters.) Dean insists the work they do is important and it saves lives. _“You think Mom would have wanted this for us?”_ Sam snaps. Dean’s angry kick at the door in response is just perfect .

Damnit, I cannot keep up with the sheer number of quotes, themes, ideas, and characterizations flying at me right now: warriors, check. Apple-pie life, check. Brodependency, check:

> Dean: I can’t do this alone.
> 
> Sam: Yes, you can.
> 
> Dean: Yeah, well, I don’t want to.

Sam agrees to hear Dean out about their missing father. 

The case is a series of missing men in Jericho, CA. They all seem to disappear on the same stretch of road. Their dad went to investigate. Dean had one EVP laced voicemail. He cleaned up and isolated the EVP: _“I can never go home.”_

Sam agrees to help out for the weekend, but he has a law school interview on Monday and he isn’t about to throw away his entire future. Man, the way Dean says “law school” is filled with such pride and skepticism. He is so proud of Sam, even if he’s not going to admit it here. And he’s seriously jealous but I don’t think he even realizes that here.

Sam packs and says goodbye to Jess.

Ah, and what is usually the cold open, we’re introduced to dude driving on road. He sees a lone figure ahead and pulls over to see if she needs help. She asks him to take her home and he agrees. She’s giving off seriously weirdo vibes, but he rolls with it–and when she starts to hike up her dress, he looks with a side smile. “ _Will you come home with me?_ ” “ _Hell, yeah_.” And tires squeal away into the dark night.

They pull up to an old, abandoned home. The dude is confused when the woman disappears from the car. We’re intrigued by cool ghost imagery. 

The dude heads to the house to look for the woman. And: **AGGHHH!** A bat flies at the dude and we all jump in our seats. He hightails it back to his car and flees. Looking back through his mirror, he sees that she’s in the back seat! He crashes through a bridge-out gate and becomes our first victim of the blood cannon.

( _Boris_ : I”m watching this on Netflix, and it’s painfully obvious how integral and important the music is on this show– the stand-in music is weak sauce. But this is my own fault because I’m too lazy to pop in the dvd.)

The boys are at a gas station, and we’re filled in on the Winchester family credit card scamming business. Also, driver/shotgun music hierarchy. 

Sam and Dean finally get to Jericho and seem to stumble upon a crime scene. Dean pulls some fake badges, much to Sam’s disbelief. The local deputies are looking at the car, but see no sign of anything else that would make it suspicious. In walk the two youngest federal marshals to ever marshal. ( _Boris sidenote_ : Squeeeeeee on how cute Dean is. Jensen just makes Dean so lovable and sarcastic and funny and badass and…guh. Dean! How I miss this Dean sometimes.)

They get a little info from the sheriff before leaving.

They head into town and start asking more questions about the victim. A couple of girls tell them about a local legend. A woman hitchhikes and whoever picks her up, disappear forever.

The boys head to the library to do some research on the internet (those were the days, man). They find a story about a woman, Constance Welch, who threw herself off the bridge and died after her children drowned in the bathtub. Sam and Dean head back to the bridge to check it out. 

The Impala is sooooo far away but Sam and Dean still manage to have their BM scene. Sam wonders where this investigation is going and whether it will actually lead them to their absent father. Dean gets testy when Sam reminds him that he needs to get back in time for his interview - Dad or no Dad. “ _You think you’re just gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?_ ” Dean says scornfully. He questions Sam’s relationship with Jess when Sam won’t even reveal his supernatural monster huntin’ past. (Natasha whispers over and over to self: “ _Did you ever think about settling down with a hunter?_ ”)

Sam tells Dean that hunting the demon that killed their mother won’t change anything. “ _Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.”_ Um. Yeah….

Anyway, them’s fightin’ words and Dean gets amped up only to be interrupted by Constance appearing on the bridge rail. She sways and plummets off the bridge, disappearing over the side. Baby starts up thanks to a little ghostly interference and Constance guns the engine and aims straight for the boys. 

They throw themselves off the side of the bridge, Baby squealing to a neat stop before she can ding her side against the railing. What a courteous murderous ghost! She must have an appreciation for classic cars. Sam pulls himself back onto the bridge while Dean crawls out of the fetid mud on the bank of the river.

Dean has to clean off his impromptu mud mask so they head out to check into a hotel. The clerk recognizes the last name on the credit card Dean uses and reveals that he’s been renting a room to one of their family members. A lead on their father at last! They pick the lock and investigate, trying to piece together the tracks of their father from the wreck of a hotel room he left behind, half eaten burger and all.

The walls of his room are papered in case notes, monster lore, and victim profiles. Sam uses this to confirm that John was chasing after a “woman in white” so they decide their first step is to make sure that her body was salted and burned. Sam apologizes for what he said about Mary, to which Dean replies, ‘ _No chick flick moments._ ” And then we get the very first “ _Jerk_ ” “ _Bitch_ ” exchange! And so it begins.

Dean heads out to pick up some food when he spots a couple Sheriff’s deputies in the parking lot. He calls Sam and tells him to take off just before the officers apprehend themselves one saucy Winchester. They’ve pinned fake credit cards and IDs on him and have pegged him as one shady dude. Is there anything that’s real? “ _ ~~My deep, tortured feelings~~. My boobs_,” replies Dean just before he’s slammed into the hood of the car and cuffed.

At the station, the Sheriff tells him that Dean and his assorted family are high on the suspect list for killing all the missing men, what with all the victim photos on the wall and “ _satanic mumbo jumbo_ ” scattered hither and thither in John’s hotel room. The Sheriff pulls out John’s journal from his evidence box and flips to a page with Dean’s name and a set of numbers on it. Dean stares at it. A clue!

Meanwhile, Sam interviews Constance’s widow and teases out the possibility that he had an unhappy marriage with Constance. Sam fills in the widower on “woman in white” lore and presses to find out if Constance fits the profile. Did she kill her children and then kill herself, after being driven mad by her husband’s infidelities?

Back at the Sheriff’s officers are pulled away to investigate a phone report of shots fired. Left alone, Dean snatches a paperclip from his dad’s journal and picks his handcuffs quickly before sneaking out of the Sheriff’s office. He calls Sam and thanks him for the fake 911 call. Good job, Sammy! Dean didn’t raise no fool.

Sam confirms that Constance is a woman in white and is behind the mysterious deaths. As he’s on the phone with Dean, the woman appears. She demands that Sam take her home. Sam tries to refuse but Constance takes control of the car. She’s…a pretty good backseat driver, actually. They end up outside of her old worn down house. “ _I can never go home_ ,” she tells Sam. He realizes that she’s literally blocked from going home but she isn’t having any of his revelations. She tries to seduce him using the time honored approach of sexy grinding and murder fingers in the chest. 

Dean stops her from squeezing Sam’s heart by shooting her through the car window (aw, poor Baby). Sam uses the interruption to gun the engine and drive the car straight into the house, thereby taking Constance home. She zaps to the foot of the stairs and the ghosts of her children appear, water flowing from their feet and pouring down the stairs and walls. It’s a touching family reunion made even more adorable as the creepy children of doom drag their mother’s soul to the afterlife.

Sam and Dean free themselves from where they were pinned behind furniture. “ _If you screwed up my car,_ ” Dean tells Sam, “ _I’ll kill you_.”

Somehow Baby is extracted from the house because we jump to Sam and Dean driving in the Impala. Sam pinpoints John’s coordinates to Blackwater Ridge, CO. Dean’s ready to drive straight there but Sam insists on heading back to Stanford. “ _Okay. Whatever,_ ” Dean says (as his heart withers and dies). “ _We made a hell of a team back there._ ”

Sam finally gets home and heads inside, calling for Jess. The apartment is dark and he lies down on the bed, ready to relax after a grueling hunt. Blood drips onto his forehead. Jess is pinned to the ceiling, bleeding from the gut, and as he watches she begins to burn. Dean kicks the door down, runs in, and pulls Sammy from his burning apartment.

Parallels, man.

Outside Dean checks in with Sam by the Impala’s trunk, emergency services in the background. Sam preps a shotgun, tosses it in the trunk, and says, “ _We’ve got work to do.”_

* * *

**_In the Quote-ginning:_ **

It’s okay, Sammy.

Don’t be afraid of the dark? What, are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what’s out there.

It’s the greatest hits of mullet rock.

Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.

Agent Mulder. Agent Scully.

“Jerk.” “Bitch.”

**Author's Note:**

> We love to hear from our readers! Let's talk about this episode in the comments :)


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